Just doing my job
by batu2pahat
Summary: A desperate battle to defend a Star League cache on a Periphery world near the Rim Collection. Considerably short chapters. My first fan fiction.
1. Slow Introduction

                The dark of the night gave way to the first rays of the sun. 

                "Finally," I muttered much to myself.

                Drops of rain scattered the rays to produce a brilliant kaleidoscope of colours on my Mech's ferroglass windshield. I felt the warmth of the sun and finally the chill went away. The chill; it had been following me for these few rainy nights. And on Bar-2 Pharhat, night lasts 72 Terran hours while daytime just lasts for 12 hours. Plenty of time to sleep, I'd thought when I was first assigned to this backwater world outside of the Periphery. What a joke, I snorted, I've hardly got any sleep ever since –

                "Hey Lieutenant, it's finally day. Maybe we'll see less of those mercenaries now."

                Jolted from my daydreaming (or more like night-dreaming), I cleared my throat responded to Sergeant Trisha. 

                "Daytime or not, keep your eyes open. The Hellhounds will probably be thinking that way too and might try to attack once more, when we're off-guard. Stay sharp –"

                I yawned, and obviously Trisha heard it.

                "Sure thing, sir. But we're all dead beat, sir, especially you. Couldn't we stand down for a few hours? Take a break. We won't fight well if we're yawning all the time, would we?"

                "We're down to less than a lance of Mechs, Trisha. You know it. We'll need all the firepower we can get to repulse any first attack by the Hellhounds; otherwise we won't have any chance to repulse a second attack. Nap in your Mech. That's it."

                "Yes, sir."

                No mistaking the disappointment in her voice. Trisha was still quite green, even after surviving the last two engagements we had with the mercenaries Hellhounds recently. She wouldn't understand how fluid battles tend to be – a Gauss slug could slice off the head of her Enforcer in a split second and then we would be down to only three Mechs. We needed to have the initiative in this battle. In our last engagement with the Hellhounds, we succeeded in driving off a force of 6 Mechs but we lost Jennings and Clara. That really hurt our morale. Now I'm doing my best to keep the morale up, and with daylight returning, spirits were coming back up. Thank goodness.


	2. The Breaking News

                Well, time to check the peripheral motion sensors. So far the mercs haven't found any of them yet, and those sensors are one of the main reasons why we are still alive. They detect the seismic quakes made by the footfalls of the enemy Mechs, and inform us of the impending attack. 

                "Trisha, hold this point. I'm going for another circuit of our outer markers."

                "….Okay…… *yawn*"

                I smiled. Trisha was probably going to fall asleep while on guard duty here. But I felt that the peripheral sensors would warn all of us in the event of attack, so Trisha would get up in time to meet the attack anyway.

                I disengaged the low power mode of my Orion and set my throttle to 20%, giving time for my engine to warm up. The ancient Mech creaked a bit, but got moving nonetheless. I checked the waypoints on my navigational computer, confirmed the locations of the peripheral sensors and set it on autopilot.

                I passed the immobile form of Corporal Jock's Catapult. I knew I could trust Jock to back up Trisha in any attack, being a veteran of plenty of assignments with me for these few years. He was a quiet and contemplative man, so I left him alone and jogged further down the hill. I spied back up on the hill the old Star League-era fortress that has been our defence point for the past 2 attacks, and wondered how much more pounding it could take. Fortunately the Hellhounds do not have artillery support or we would've been routed long ago. 

                We still have not been able to raise the only other field base, the starport. Assuming the worst, that would mean that we are the only viable military force capable of defending this planet. As it was, we were hard-pressed to defend the strategic hilltop position, which was the only other civilisation on the planet; a "town" with only a population of 50. However these 50 are not the original inhabitants of this planet, who have long left this hell; actually they are a science and research team investigating a possible small Star League-era cache. Small it may be, but initial reports have uncovered a very surprising thing: the cache contains the blueprints for a more advanced Kearny-Fuchida drive engine, capable of conducting jumps over distances unimaginable by the current technologies. It might take years of analysis to understand and to build one, but the ownership of these blueprints, if they truly exist, would certainly bring absolute wealth, and not to mention power. Warships could appear at any time in a certain star system with only one jump, and commerce will become so quick that even HPG transmissions would be slower than sending a crate of beer to another planet hundreds of light years away. 

                That's the reason why the Hellhounds are here. The current rumour on base is that the Capellans have employed these mercenaries to take the blueprints by force. Normal tactics, using mercs to do dirty work. That's why no artillery, otherwise the plans would be scraps of paper before the attack was finished. But the question that still remains unanswered was how did they know about the blueprints? We just found out about the plans two weeks ago. The mercs then landed and struck at us a few days later. Whatever or whoever their source of information is, they didn't spend much time double-checking their creditability! 

                My Orion stepped nearer to the first of the 6 peripheral markers, which were arranged in a hexagonal grid around the base of the hill. The sensor registered my presence, so I knew it was working. I moved on to the next sensor. I gave a brief report over the radio for the benefit of my team members.

                "Northeast sensor checked."

                Initially when the enemy force first started their burn-in, I was notified of the impending attack by the starport. Captain Jenna told me that she had sent out an SOS via Comstar HPG for backup to Gillfillan's Gold, the capital of the nearby Rim Collection, shortly before I lost contact with her. I do not know if the SOS had gone through or not, but all we could do is hold out and hope. I don't even know how big the invading force was, except that the force which dropped almost directly on us was two lances of medium and heavy class Mechs. I had two lances then, too. 

                "Northwest sensor checked."

                I lost David first when he crashed his Jenner into a Bombardier, causing his fusion reactor to go critical and taking the enemy with him. Then Gunner lost his life when an Atlas cut into his Quickdraw's cockpit with its large laser and autocannon. Although Jock and I then managed to blow out the Atlas' gyroscope after that, losing the two affected all of us. Then more had fallen in the brutal fighting. Chuck, Lorna ….

So many had died repulsing the first attack. I could not remember how the rest died. 

Didn't want to remember. 

                "West sensor checked."

                Just then another voice cut in on my thoughts, after my last transmission.

                "Lieutenant, Dr. Jenkins says that these plans might not be a new Kearny-Fuchida drive after all. He's still arguing with his fellow scientists –"

                My tired eyes grew wide.

                "Say again, Harry?!! The plans are NOT new?" 

                "I'm sorry, sir. I thought you might want to know about that first, before it gets finalised and told to the rest of the team. There is still a chance Dr. Jenkins is wrong, sir. I'll get back to you soon with more news. Harry out."

                I failed to respond for a few moments.

                I refused to believe that my Mechwarriors had paid so dearly for something which was not worthy of their lives. David, Gunner, Chuck, Lorna …..

I sat there, silently weeping for moments. 


	3. The Final Attack Begins

                "Sir? Are you there? I've got some funny readings from the seismic sensor on our eastern side. Have you checked that out yet? There was a sudden bleep from it, but it cut off before I could get a positive readout."

                I felt a chill run through me, the same chill which started when the mercenaries first landed on Bar-2 Pharhat. I was still near the western sensor, drying my few drops of tears. Anger coursed through my veins all of the sudden. They were attacking again. Trying to get something which was useless to them anyway. _But we won't make it any easier for them! Not while I still live!_

                "Trisha! I hope I'm wrong but I'm betting the mercs are back. They finally found the sensors. Get Jock to back you up now! I'm on the west side; I'll join you all in a while more."

                I quickly changed frequencies and called up Harry, who was still in the fort.

                "Harry! Get back to your Hatchetman NOW! We've got probable incoming bogies! Get the scientists to hole up in the bunker now!"

                I dimly remember hearing Harry shouting his confirmation of my orders when probably 15 rounds of LRMs struck all over my Mech's back, stripping it of nearly all its armour. Taken completely by surprise, I stumbled and my Orion crashed headfirst into the ground. I must have failed to notice the arrival of the enemy, in my horrible state of mind. Radio chatter from the eastern side filtered through while I lay there for a while, groggy.

                "Sir! I'm picking up only 3 Mechs here! Where the hell are the rest?"

                "Lieutenant! Only the Jagermech, Assassin and Sentinel are here. That means the Dragon, Crab and Panther are probably converging on our location from elsewhere!!"

                I struggled to stand up, trying to shake the cobwebs out of my head.

                "Harry, they're all here on the western side. I need some backup soon or you'll need a new CO."

                My damage schematics painted a bleak picture: one shot from a PPC, large laser or autocannon would tear my back open like a piece of aluminium foil and breach my fusion reactor. And the three Mechs converging on me had just those weapons. 

                "This is going to be my last battle," I muttered.

                My Orion finally got up, and I quickly spun around to face my opponents, who were walking slowly towards me. The Dragon led the group, obviously the leader of this pack. The odds were definitely against me. The three Mechs didn't fire on me yet, figuring that I would prove to be a quick kill if I ever wanted to fight back. In fact, I even heard the mocking voice of the Dragon's pilot calling over the general frequency:

                "Orion pilot. This is your last chance. Power down now and we'll spare you and that tin can of yours. Give it up. You know you haven't got a chance against us."

                We've been fighting for no good reason, lost our team-mates over probably some useless find and now you're insulting me? Give up? Give up the fight and waste the efforts of David, Gunner, Chuck, Lorna?? I would never live it down. I clenched my teeth in anger. 

                And fired all my LRMs, lasers and autocannon at the Dragon.

                "Jock! Harry! I've got problems with my autocannon! I think … it's stuck! I need help here! How do I clear it?"

                "Trish, shut up and just shoot that Sentinel with your lasers. Hit the legs! The legs!"

                "I'm running hot, Harry! Can't aim …. targeting computer's offline, I think …."

                "Trish, cool down your Mech before you blow your fusion reactor!"

                The unfolding battle proved my fears right; Trisha was panicking in the face of the enemy. Harry and Jock were still trying to finish off the Jagermech before it tore their Mechs apart with its autocannons. The Assassin was the first to be knocked out when Jock blasted that Mech with his 24 LRMs and Harry sliced into its fusion reactor apart with his autocannon, unleashing a full explosion. But Jock lost one of his LRM launcher racks after that, thanks to a well-aimed round from the Jagermech. Ammo-dependent to begin with, now Jock's offensive capability was drastically reduced. But at the least they were holding up. And somehow, so was I, alone against 3 Mechs.

                My first barrage at the Dragon succeeded in knocking it off its feet, leaving me to deal with my surge of heat and the remaining Mechs. A PPC, courtesy of the Panther, narrowly missed my cockpit while I flushed some of my heat away. The Crab's lasers burned more than a ton of armour off my left arm and leg, but fortunately its other shots missed. My torso armour was still untouched! I still might be able to survive this!

                I let loose my autocannon and lasers at the Panther, the autocannon shells blowing off armour on its centre torso while my medium lasers hit the Panther's cockpit. But the responding PPC shot struck my left torso with the force of a jackhammer, almost causing me to stumble again. I managed to work the Mech up and point my autocannon at the Panther's head while the Crab blasted armour from my legs again. I figured the Crab to be piloted by a rookie, judging from the inaccuracy of its shots. 

                "Harry! Jump in on the Jagermech's left while I distract his attention!"

                "Boys, the Sentinel is running!! I managed to blow off its arms!"

                "Now, Harry!"

                "Gotcha! One axe blow coming up!"

                My autocannon barked, and I saw the line of bullets fly straight to the Panther's cockpit. I grinned savagely as I saw the Panther crash after that devastating shot, never to rise again. 

                "Lieutenant! Are you there? Lieutenant?!"

                Suddenly my Mech was pummeled again. I bit my lips from the sudden impact and realised that I had been hit by the Dragon's missiles again. My Mech reeled heavily from the assault, almost stumbling. The gyro whined loudly, compensating, and I managed to stay up.

                Damn it, I let myself be distracted by the Panther.

                "Lieutenant!!"


	4. The Last Battle

                I coughed and replied, "Damn it, I'm still here but I won't be soon if you guys don't give me backup now!"

                The Dragon pilot broadcasted over the general frequency again, "You bloody arsehole, now you've asked for it!"

                "Bring it on!" I shot back, even while spitting out the blood from my mouth.

                The Crab, still not willing to give up, melted another ton of armour off my left arm and torso. However this time my torso armour had been ravaged by the Dragon's missiles, and one of the laser shots grazed my fusion reactor shielding. Suddenly, my cockpit seemed a lot hotter.

                Undeterred, I still squeezed off my LRMs and autocannon on the Dragon again, but this time scoring a hit only with half of my LRMs. The Dragon shook off the attack and splashed his medium lasers over my cockpit, blinding me. The flash-blind elicited a sudden outburst from me.

                "Argh!!"

                "What's wrong, Lieutenant?!! We're on our way! We just finished off the Jagermech!"

                I squeezed off all of my lasers, hoping to score a hit even though blinded. The shutdown alarms blared and I slapped the override button. I quickly back pedalled to get me further from both Mechs.

                "I've lost almost my entire chest and back armour, fellas. Even got me a hit on the cockpit that's going to leave a scar."

                Hearing me joke must have relieved Harry.

                "Don't worry sir! We're just over the hill now. Hold out for another two minutes!"

                I could only smile sadly while staring at my damage schematics. "All right."

                The Dragon came forward again, levelling its weapons straight at me. Where did that Crab go? With its large laser, it could drill a hole in my back and blow my ammunition storage. It must be moving in behind me. Sweat poured from my brow.

                I fired only one of my lasers at the Dragon, scoring a hit on its right torso but still not penetrating its armour. Yet my heat level refused to go down. I toggled for the full release of my flushing mechanism, hoping to clear the heat from my cockpit. 

                Autocannon shells hammered my right torso, totally destroying the armour on that side and rendering my autocannon useless. Even the laser on my right hand blinked red on my weapons status monitor. Destroyed. I knew time was running out for me. I triggered a full blast of my LRMs, hoping to wipe the armour off the Dragon's torso clean.

                "Sir! Watch your back!"

                I heard a whine, and I realised that it was the sound of the Crab's laser chipping into my gyro. The delicate mechanism started to sputter and I felt my controls become heavier. Was my gyro completely destroyed? No, my Mech didn't go down. Yes! I'm still up. 

                Next another autocannon burst from the Dragon, still smoking from the LRM hits I unleashed just now. This time, there was no stopping the destruction. My status display reported my left torso as destroyed too, which meant that ….. I was out of weapons, and had paper-thin armour defending my centre torso left. A sexy female voice repeated in my neurohelmet: "Warning! Critical damage. Warning! Engine damage. Warning! Weapons destroyed …."

                I stared at my ejection controls, not wishing to give up just yet. But what else could I do? Die in this Mech? I stared ahead at the approaching Dragon, helpless to do anything but eject. Wait ..... nothing but eject?

                And suddenly, several flights of LRMs screamed over my shoulder and impacted all over the Dragon's weak torso armour. 

                "Here comes the cavalry!" Trisha was hollering.

                The Dragon staggered, realising that it was now outgunned, even with the Crab. Immediately it started to back pedal, firing its LRMs at one of my lance mates behind me. I saw the Crab appear on one side, running away from the battle. I saw Trisha's Enforcer chasing after that Mech, though her Mech itself was not in good shape. Jock and Harry were probably behind me, locking their LRMs on the Dragon now and warning it off. However, I wasn't ready to let go of the Dragon yet. Not while it still could come back to lead another offensive. The Crab and the Sentinel had cowards for pilots. They won't come back, not without a leader. _So the Dragon had to go down._

                I turned my throttle up to the max and fought against the controls, attempting to balance the unwieldy Mech. The Orion, battered beyond redemption, started to limp but then finally got into a running pace ….. straight at the retreating Dragon. 

                The Dragon pilot noted my approach and started to fire his autocannon and lasers at me, but too hastily. His shots went wide. Another flight of LRMs crashed into his smoking torso, further ruining his shot. That should be enough to stall him until I could –

                "Sir, are you planning to ram him? You're going to kill yourself! Pull back! He's lost! PULL BACK!"

                I smiled softly, for the last time. Images of David, Gunner, Chuck, Lorna, and the others flashed through my mind. "Just carrying out my duty, Harry."


	5. Epilogue

                The three Mechwarriors sat moping around the campfire built in the middle of their three Mechs. Harry was poking the fire with a twig, while Jock was lying down as if asleep. Trisha was the only one looking uncomfortable, fidgeting every once in a while, looking around the place she sat as if waiting for some attack to happen. Around them, technicians were working hard at repairing the Mechs for any further combat. If there were any more battles. A scientist, with nothing much else to do, sat at another campfire with his compatriots playing a sad tune on his harmonica. The mood was nothing but somber.

                "Don't you think they'll come back?"

                "Probably not. Captain Jenna said that they finally beat back the Hellhounds besieging the starport with the additional support from Gillfillan's Gold, and will be arriving to back us up in another 5 hours. But it doesn't hurt to be ready for action. Those 2 mercs left might try something again soon, before our backup arrives."

                Trisha seemed unhappy with the explanation from Harry. "So these mercs will just get away with this?"

                "Trish …… it can't be helped. The Rim Collection government isn't strong enough to wage war against the Capellans, you know. Furthermore we hardly salvaged anything from this site. Just a few Mech components and blueprints for a stupid ....", Harry threw down the stick in his hand angrily, " .... bloody damned existing hyperdrive engine!!" Harry took a deep breath, and then continued calmly.

"We can only try to find out who leaked our information and submit our complaints to the Star League council."

                "But those bastards …. killed the lieutenant."

                Jock suddenly spoke up, with strong conviction. "He didn't get killed by those dogs. The lieutenant would never let himself get killed. He took down that Dragon with him."

                Trisha was astonished by the sudden outburst from Jock. But she understood how he and Harry felt. Both of them had served with the lieutenant for many years, and had looked upon him as a father. 

She looked out upon the empty plains surrounding the hill, illuminated only by the planet's single moon. Out there, lies yet another valiant Mechwarrior, never again to pilot a Mech and never again to walk the land of which he fought so hard to defend. The serene scene seemed the only consolation the planet offered to appease the spirit of the lieutenant, frustrating her. Determination came to life in Trisha; the determination to seek out the traitor and avenge her lieutenant. 


End file.
